Episode 14: Methodologies for the Study of Mysticism

If you thought magic was a minefield, wait until you meet mysticism. All terms in the study of religions have potential problems, and need to be defined with some real thought and nuance, but when we are talking about mystical texts, we are in an extra difficult terrain, because the texts themselves often tell us very paradoxical and bizarre things.

What is apophatic mystical writing, and how does it work? How can we interpret an account of an experience which we are told is utterly ineffable? And how do Rupert and Steve fit into all this? This episode addresses these questions.

(Corrigendum: in this episode I make the mistake, which we’ve all made at one time or another, of mixing up my Scotuses. My reference to ‘Duns Scotus Eriugena’ is meant of course to refer to John Scotus Eriugena, the great Irish philosophic theologian of the Carolingian period, not the inconveniently-names John Duns Scotus, who lived in the 13th century and wasn’t particularly esoteric.)